Servant of God Sister Leonia Nastal, a Polish nun whose spiritual diary offers harrowing details of Jesus' imprisonment before the crucifixion, is pictured in an undated photograph. At Jesus' request, she wrote down everything he said to her — pictured is the first page of her spiritual writings. She first heard his voice in her heart in June 1934. Sister Leonia is considered one of the greatest Polish mystics. (OSV News/Courtesy of Agnieszka Bugala)
OSV News
A hidden chapter of Christ's Passion has come to light through the mystical revelations of Servant of God Sr. Leonia Nastal, a Polish nun whose spiritual diary offers harrowing details of Jesus' imprisonment before the crucifixion.
Born in 1903, Sr. Leonia joined the Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, founded by Blessed Edmund Bojanowski in the 19th century. She died during World War II, at just 37 years old.
Her death caused a widespread stir, as throughout her convent life she was seen as a living saint. Locals testified that after her death, the sister's hands were warm and the smell of flowers spread through the room. In 1976, the sainthood cause of Sr. Leonia began. On Dec. 2, 2016, Pope Francis issued a decree on the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Sr. Leonia.
Though she only lived 15 years in her convent, according to her diaries, she encountered the Lord fully and was granted a rare insight into Jesus' Passion.
Sr. Leonia is considered one of the greatest Polish mystics. In a similar timeframe of history in which Jesus revealed the mystery of Divine Mercy to another Polish saint, Sr. Faustina Kowalska, Sr. Leonia received mystical visions about the Lord's Passion.
At Jesus' request, she wrote down everything he said to her. She first heard his voice in her heart in June 1934. "This is my daughter in whom I am well pleased," Jesus said.
The nun immediately asked her confessor how to deal with these visions and received an answer confirming that her experience was authentic, and that the Lord Jesus was really speaking to her heart. These mystical conversations continued for six years, until the sister's death. She wrote down their contents in a spiritual journal, titled "I Believed in Love." Her notes received an imprimatur, or official approval for publication, from church authorities.
One of the most shocking images that Jesus revealed to Sr. Leonia she received on Feb. 26, 1936, when Jesus unveiled to her the events of the night of Holy Thursday, after his capture at the Mount of Olives. Jesus took Sr. Leonia to a prison cell and showed her a harrowing image of the executioner's cell. In the vision, like a narrator, the Lord told Sr. Leonia about what he had been through.
"Night in the prison dungeon. What and how much I suffered there, is also shrouded in the darkness of mystery. I had no witness there to look at my pains, agonies and sufferings. The executioners threw me, after interrogation with the Jewish high priests, into prison, but they did not leave me there alone. They began a terrible game with me in the midst of the night darkness," Jesus told Sr. Leonia.
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Torture in the prison continued throughout the night. "The executioners lined up in the corners of the dungeon and rejected me one by one with all their might, as one rejects a ball. When they became uncomfortable with this kind of play, they grabbed my hands and, pulling in opposite directions, tried their strength at my expense. At the same time, other plotters drove sharp spires into my body. How many fainting pains I suffered then," Jesus told Sr. Leonia about the tortures he suffered.
"Finally they threw me to the ground. One of the executioners stood on my head, another on my chest, and another on my legs, and they threw me to the ground with the full force of their weight. They passed over me. There were also those who tried to break off individual fingers of my hands, and hit my head against a stone pillar. Some fierceness, truly satanic, drove these wretches to ever new atrocities and abuse of the helpless victim," Jesus lamented.
Fr. Leszek Smolinski, parish priest familiar with the mystical conversations of Sr. Leonia, told OSV News that reading the diary and the record of those interactions with Jesus can help us live the mysteries of faith, especially during the Paschal Triduum.
"The spiritual diaries of the church's mystics introduce us to the world of grace, the discovery of which can deepen our faith and personal piety, consequently leading to the development of spiritual life," the priest said. "Private revelation is God's message to one person or a larger group, concerning the edification and journey of faith of the entire church community. They should be considered authentic if they do not contradict the dogmatic and moral teaching of the church."
He added that "private revelations are not given by God without a reason. They affect the intellectual and emotional spheres of man, giving not only mental cognition, but also expressing themselves in elevated emotional experiences. It is worth keeping this in mind as we enter the Holy Thursday experience," he added.
Sr. Leonia also noted in her diary that despite unimaginable suffering, Jesus' attitude toward his torturers was still merciful.
"In my heart reigned during these torments unbroken sweetness, kindness, pity for those poor people," Sr. Leonia said that Jesus related to her. "I did not issue a single complaint, not a single reproach of ingratitude. I tried to influence their souls with my grace, but their hearts were already hardened."
